Schertz YMCA campers visit community garden

Published 12:11 pm, Thursday, July 24, 2014

Dale Odvody leads a group of YMCA Community First Program campers on a tour of the Guadalupe County community gardens in Schertz.

Dale Odvody leads a group of YMCA Community First Program campers on a tour of the Guadalupe County community gardens in Schertz.

Photo: David DeKunder / Northeast Herald

Schertz YMCA campers visit community garden

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A group of Schertz YMCA campers last week learned the benefits of gardening from several “green thumbs.”

Twenty children, ages 9-14, from the Schertz Family YMCA, visited the Guadalupe County Community Garden in Schertz July 16. The garden is located behind the County Annex Building on Elbel Road.

Several Guadalupe County Master Gardeners, who volunteer their time twice a week, gave the YMCA campers a tour of the garden.

The children were participating in the YMCA's Community First Camp program. Andi Anderson, Schertz Family YMCA membership and marketing director, said the program teaches children about civic responsibility and volunteerism.

Gardeners Dale Odvody, Mary Bowe, John Lewicki and Bob Tewles, president of the county master gardeners, led the campers in a tour of the various vegetable plants and fruit trees growing in the garden, the greenhouse and the garden's rainwater collecting system.

A number of YMCA campers said they enjoyed their visit to the community garden.

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“I thought it was cool because anyone can come out and help grow the plants (in the garden),” said 10-year-old Anthony Lara.

Lara said his favorite plant was the spaghetti squash because one of the gardeners said it tasted like spaghetti.

At the end of the tour, the master gardeners held a contest for the children in which they were asked to write the names of the vegetable and fruit produce grown in the garden.

The camper who was able to list the most number of correct plants was given a watermelon grown from the garden.

Kennedy Kearns, 9, wrote down 18 plants and won the watermelon, which, she said, she planned to share with the rest of the campers.